Personalize Display Brightness

Next, find the Display section in the power scheme’s settings pop-up window. Click on the plus sign next to it and select Display brightness.

I made the following settings: 30% brightness for the High performance power scheme, 20% for Balanced, and 0% for Power saver.

I always set the same percentages for both On battery and Plugged in.

These settings work great for me. My 17″ Dell XPS laptop has an excellent display. The outside light is well-matched by the 30% brightness setting during the day. In the afternoon I switch to 20% display brightness, and late at night I use 0% brightness for watching movies (but not for work).

You need to find out what percentages work best for your specific lighting conditions and computer screens.

The powercfg Command

Now that you know what display brightness you wish to use, let’s summarize all the power scheme information available.

For this, we use the great powercfg command.

Launch Command Prompt from Start > All Programs > Accessories. In the Command Prompt window, type and enter the following command:

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powercfg-list

This command lists all available power schemes including their GUIDs — globally unique identifiers.

Note: You can copy-paste commands to the Command Prompt’s window. However, when pasting them, you have to right-click with your mouse within the Command Prompt window and select Paste from the drop-down menu.